Theoretical propositions about the emergence and evolution of common property regimes suggest that individuals will conserve (or at least manage) natural resources when they believe the risks of maintaining existing relations are unacceptably high. Individuals, it is argued, are more likely to overcome problems of malfeasance and free riding when they share both an interest in the new institutional arrangement and a legacy of successful cooperation. A contradictory proposition argues that individuals will ignore or fail to implement rules of resource conservation when the stakes of survival are most extreme. Implicit here is an assertion that the costs and risks of survival are so great that they preclude participation in all but the most vital forms of social interaction. This paper considers these debates by exploring the conditions under which villagers in Southern Thailand implemented and enforced rules of restricted access in a traditional inshore fishery.